'He's behind you!': F1 panto kicks off with Bottas 'return' at Qatar GP

The ghost of F1 past? The ghost of F1 future? Whatever he is, Valtteri Bottas is haunting teams ahead of his return to the grid in 2026.

We're broadly used to drivers not being quite sure who the next car on track is, usually relying on their race engineers for that information, but that information...isn't always entirely reliable.

The long-time Mercedes driver is still present at most races in his role as Mercedes' test and reserve driver, as he is this weekend – just not in the way that Yuki Tsunoda's race engineer Richard Wood seemed to think.

"Okay, Bottas opening behind, Bottas opening behind," a baffled Tsunoda was told, before he replied "I didn't know Bottas was driving, mate."

Phantom Bottas strikes again

Not only is this not the first time this season that a driver's engineer has told them an inactive driver was out on track with them, it's not even the first time someone's been mistakenly told that Bottas was on track.

Come to that, it's not even the first time a driver at a Red Bull team has been erroneously been warned about the Finn's presence, after Isack Hadjar had to tell his race engineer at the US Grand Prix: “Stop with Bottas, mate. There is no Bottas on track.”

It's not entirely clear why people keep hallucinating a mulleted and moustachioed man on the track – we've checked, and that isn't a listed effect of excess Red Bull consumption.

Maybe there just happens to be a couple of secret clairvoyants working in the wider Red Bull machine, and they're seeing a slow-moving Cadillac at the 2026 edition of the race. It is truly impossible to know.

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